Thank you so much for all the reviews! This is the most I have ever gotten on a story and I love hearing what you think.
I forgot to upload this chapter yesterday; so I'm sorry for my lateness. The semester is getting busier and I just completely forgot to upload it.
As it is right now, there are only 2 chapters left after this one... but I am thinking of adding more after where I had planned to end the story. I had a few ideas, anyway. I don't know if they are enough to go on yet. I haven't decided if I want to add on, write a sequel, or just leave it where I originally intended to end it. But, let me know what you guys think and I will keep you updated on what I decide to do :)
The next morning, Izaya acted like nothing had happened last night. So, I guess he didn't hear what I said after all.
….
After another day sitting around at Shinra's, he decided we needed to get some fresh air. Shinra wanted me to go around Ikebukuro with Izaya, but during the day and sticking to populated areas. I needed to get back to my job though.
"Shinra, I need to get back to my job. Can't I work and go walk around in the evening?"
"No, you need to go in the middle of the day when it won't be getting dark. You could run into a gang. I am already going to have Celty tail you."
"Okay, but this is the last day I take off from work. I am letting Tom down… If you want Izaya to get out after today, then he will have to tag along with me and Tom."
"Can't I just stay here? I don't see why I have to go out." Izaya butted in from the doorway of the patient room.
"You need to get re-accustomed to being around people you don't know. Especially when it is a more crowded place like on the sidewalks of Ikebukuro." Shinra explained, matter of factly.
"Can't I tag along with Shizuo and Tom first? You know, as kind of an adjustment step. Since it would only be one new person instead of walking around an entire city."
"My job gets dangerous sometimes, Izaya. I know you can fight but you are still healing."
"Shizuo is right, Izaya." At this rate, Izaya and I might as well just call Shinra our mother.
"Shizuo, you are still injured too. You don't feel pain as much as the rest of us, but you still haven't healed completely."
"Well Shizuo, he's got me there." Shinra chimed in, looking like an expectant puppy the way his head would swing from Izaya to me. Sometimes I want to shove a sock in his mouth.
"Two mostly healed people are better than one if you insist on going back to work." Izaya added.
"Well it's settled then!" Shinra exclaimed.
"Wait a minute. Even though I will do what Shinra thinks is best, I still think this is stupid. And the decision is ultimately up to Tom. Which would mean that I have to tell him everything that has happened." I argued. I honestly don't know what had gotten into Shinra and Izaya all of the sudden.
"That's fine. If you trust Tom, then I trust Tom." Yet another surprising sentence from Izaya. I'm still not fully used to him being civil.
"Alright, I'll call him and ask if he is okay with you coming." Izaya's face looked relieved. I guess he really didn't feel up to being around people yet. In my opinion, he should be able to take another day or two before he faces people. Especially in a city full of gangs that hate him and could attack. Shinra took that as a sign to leave the room so I could call. Izaya had backed back into the patient room. I guess that meant I should just go ahead and call him now. I fished around in my pocket until I felt the cold metal of the phone and pulled it out. I held it in my palm for a minute, feeling the solid weight of my phone. It felt like it had been quite a while since I had talked to anyone other than Shinra, Izaya, or Celty. In reality it had just been two days, but the events had made it seem so much longer. I flipped the phone open and dialed Tom's number, kind of excited to talk to him again.
"Hello."
"Hi, figured I should check in."
"Oh, Shizuo, hey. Everything okay?" Worry edging into his voice. I guess I should have called and let him know something sooner.
"Yeah, I'm ready to come back to work… I was also wondering if Izaya could tag along?"
"The same Izaya you always end up fighting?"
"Heh, yeah. You could say that he's… changed."
"Shizuo, what's going on? Why have you been recovering at Shinra's?"
"It's kind of a long story…"
"I have time."
"Um, well… I'm not sure where to start really."
"Just try to explain and I'll clear up anything you miss"
"Uh…. okay… I got in a fight with Izaya that day I ran off when we were coming back from work."
"Yeah, I remember you ran off."
"Yeah…After our fight a gang ended up grabbing him. They had him a few days and tortured him. The gang contacted Izaya's assistant saying that they wanted to fight me. I had planned to help rescue him since it was my fault he got taken. This is why I had to take that call at work and take off the next day. Anyway…I fought the gang members and got Izaya out. I got shot in the process though, so I've been recovering at Shinra's with Izaya."
"Are you sure you are ready to come back to work then? And that we can trust Izaya?"
"Yeah, Shinra patched me up and I heal quickly. It doesn't even hurt much anymore. As for Izaya, like I said, he has changed. He decided to stop being an informant, so you wouldn't have to worry about client info…. Shinra wants to adjust him back to being around people. Izaya doesn't really trust anyone other than me and, I think, Shinra and Celty right now."
"Well, if you feel good enough to come back, you can. I will trust your judgment on Izaya."
"Want to get back into the groove today? With Izaya tagging along?"
"Yeah, that's fine with me. Meet at 11 at the usual coffee shop?"
"Yeah, that works. Thanks Tom, see you then." I flipped the phone shut and slid it back into my pocket as I made my way to the patient room. When I walked in, Izaya looked up from the bed expectantly.
"Tom said he was okay with you tagging along today." Again, Izaya looked relieved. When I looked up after I took a seat on the couch however, he looked worried. He even had his hands clasped in his lap. "What's wrong?"
"…I don't really want to go out and risk a gang seeing me."
"It'll be okay. If they do, I will be there. I won't let them get you. And Tom is a pretty capable man too."
"Okay."
"Tom wants us to meet him at a coffee shop at 11. It's about a ten-minute walk from here."
. . . .
Izaya and I walking down the street was an odd experience. I mean, I know I had had a lot of odd experiences recently, but this was really the icing on the cake. Most people, even the people in the areas surrounding Ikebukuro, had heard of my and Izaya's fights. Yet, here we were, walking down the street together. We got stares from people that I assumed knew of who we are. The craziest thing though was that Izaya actually seemed scared for once. I now know he was scared at the pool, but it is different now that I am actually aware of him being scared in the moment. He was walking pretty close to me and kept darting his eyes around.
A chill was in the air. Winter seemed to be showing up out of nowhere. Despite the chill that signaled its arrival soon, the day was still nice and felt relatively comfortable. The fresh air did actually feel good after being in Shinra's apartment for what felt like weeks. The sun was hidden behind clouds, which was probably a good thing where we had both been indoors for a while. I still had my sunglasses on though. I glanced over at Izaya who was wearing his usual coat with fur trim. He seemed to be squinting a little bit. Another breeze blew down the street and he pulled his coat tighter around his small body.
"You okay Izaya?" I asked, watching him shiver slightly.
"Yeah."
"Really? Because you are shivering." That seemed to make him pause.
"I'm fine, just get cold easily. I'm not a fan of winter."
"It's not winter though." Izaya looked at me like I was stupid. I just looked back at him the same way.
"No, but you can feel that it is coming in the air. It's not that cold until the wind blows."
"Yeah, I can feel it on the wind. The coffee shop is right around this corner, so we will be inside soon" I said, as we turned that exact corner. Izaya stared up at the sign.
"Cozy corner café? Really?"
"I know it's kind of a weird name, but they have great food and drinks." I said, motioning him in. He seemed reluctant to enter first though. I sighed, moving in front of him. He followed. This really was strange. Actually, more than strange. It was like we had entered the twilight zone. Once inside, I heard his steps pause. I looked back at him and he seemed to be scanning the faces of everyone inside. When I turned back around I noticed people staring and whispering. Great.
In the back corner, near the window to the street, Tom was motioning to get my attention. I let Izaya take the window seat since he seemed even more on edge now. Maybe if he had seen someone who disliked him and they wanted to do something, they would think twice if I was sitting on the outside of him. Plus, I figure being next to the window might calm him some. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked at Tom, only to see him staring back and forth between us. Izaya was beginning to fidget uncomfortably next to me.
"Well Shizuo, I had a hard time believing you were actually okay with Izaya now, but here you both are. And you aren't trying to kill him." Tom said with a nervous chuckle, starting the conversation to relieve the awkward air that had begun to settle over the table.
"Yeah. A lot has happened." I replied, glancing over at Izaya. He was just staring at his lap again.
"I'd say so…. The waiter came by for my order. I told him two more were coming so he said he would come back when you guys got here."
"Oh, thanks Tom." I opened the menu that had been placed there in the anticipation of our arrival. Izaya reached into his pocket and then just sat there.
"Aren't you getting anything Izaya?"
"I'm not really hungry." He said as he looked out the window.
"But you need to eat so you can get better. And today will be a long day." Izaya's stomach growled, betraying him. "I thought you weren't hungry?"
"I may have forgotten my wallet at Shinra's." Izaya said in a low voice.
"I can spot you. You need to eat. Just pay me back when we get back to Shinra's." I said, laughing. Izaya's head turned toward me and he just stared, wide eyed. "What? As if I would let you not eat when you are hungry and need to heal."
"Thank you." I could have sworn that Izaya's cheeks got a hint of pink on them. I must have been imagining things though.
The waiter came back and took our orders. We all ate in a comfortable silence other than the occasional small talk by Tom. When we were done I paid for Izaya's food, he thanked me again, and we headed back out into the street. Izaya walked close to me like he had before the coffee shop. He was apparently still on edge. Of course, I couldn't blame him. Tom started briefing me on the clients we had to go to today.
. . .
The first few clients went by smoother than they usually do. I only had to punch the wall at one man's place. That is about as violent as I had to get today. The last client however, was making up for all the trouble avoided from the others. First, he wouldn't answer his door. But then we hear him moving around inside and a light was on. We kept banging on the door until he finally opened it with a safety chain on. Tom talked to him for a few minutes and he insisted he didn't have the money like they always do. Tom told him that he had already been given too many extensions. His response to this was to shove a knife out of the crack of the door. Luckily, Tom saw it coming and dodged.
I took this as an incentive to kick the door in and beat the living shit out of this guy. The door hit him as it broke inward. He crawled out from under it and charged me with the knife. I grabbed his knife arm, but he kicked me in the crotch and ducked by me to run out the door when my grip loosened. I muttered some select words under my breathe and turned around to bash his ever loving head in. I emerged from the broken doorway to see the scum approaching Izaya, who had blocked the path toward the stairs the guy must have ran toward. Before I could take another step, the guy lunged at a dazed looking Izaya.
"Izaya!" I snapped him out of whatever trance he was in. It looked like he faltered for a second before his instincts took over. He appeared to be like the old Izaya for a few seconds, which made me stop in my tracks. He had dodged to the side and whipped his knife out of his pocket, swinging it in the same motion. The other guy managed to only get himself nicked as he ran by. Izaya jumped onto the railing and down to the bottom of the stairs as I started chasing after him once again. Izaya stopped him at the bottom of the stairs as I came up from behind him and grabbed the knife out of the guy's hand and threw it behind Izaya. Then I kicked the man's legs out from under him and dragged him up the stairs by his collar. Once back inside the apartment, I pinned him up against a wall. He struggled to get out of my grip but stopped once he realized he wasn't going to get anywhere.
"Fine, let me go and I'll get the money." I did let him go. He headed toward his bedroom and emerged a few minutes later with money. When he was handing it to me though, he whipped out a knife from his other hand and slashed my arm.
"YOU CUT MY SHIRT! MY BROTHER GOT ME THIS, YOU BASTARD!" I took his face and slammed it into the nearest wall, took the money from his hand, and stormed out to Tom and Izaya.
"What the hell happened?!" Tom asked when he saw the blood and the money.
"Bastard cut me. I got the money though." I said as I handed it to Tom. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Izaya was motioning to hand me the knife.
"Keep it. You can use it better than I can. Didn't know you could still fight." I joked. Although here recently I didn't know if he would still fight or if he would freeze in a bad situation. It's good to see he isn't damaged that bad.
"Yeah, I'm not useless. May have overdone it by jumping off the railing and down a story though." He responded in an equally joking tone. Tom and I still looked at him in concern though.
"Are you okay?" I leaned relatively close and placed my hand on his back. Tom was walking ahead of us.
"Yeah, just landed a little harder than usual. Made it work though." Izaya looked away and I removed my hand. I don't know why I even placed it on his back anyway. I probably just freaked him out.